Aug 27, 2014
The new group, known as Jamaat-e-Ahrar, is composed of disaffected Taliban factions from four of the seven tribal districts along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, according to a video released by the group.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban has suffered its second major split in three months, with militant leaders this week confirming the emergence of a hard-line splinter group inspired by the success of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The new group, known as Jamaat-e-Ahrar, is composed of disaffected Taliban factions from four of the seven tribal districts along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, according to a video released by the group. Counterterrorism experts said the group was effectively controlled by Omar Khalid Khorasani, an ambitious Taliban commander with strong ties to al-Qaida.
Mr Khorasani's faction, which is based in the Mohmand tribal agency near Peshawar, had emerged as one of the most active Taliban elements this year. It is believed to have carried out a bombing in Islamabad that sought to derail peace talks between the Taliban and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government.
The formation of Jamaat-e-Ahrar is one of the most serious internal threats to the Pakistani Taliban, officially known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, since it was formed seven years ago.
In a lengthy video statement explaining the decision to break away, Mr Khorasani said the Taliban had become undisciplined and suffered from factional infighting. "This was devastating for our movement," he said.
The new group also represents a challenge to the authority of the main Taliban leader, Maulana Fazlullah, who gained control of the insurgency last year after his predecessor, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in an American drone strike.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the new group, which is formally called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-e-Ahrar, said the new group had become "the real TTP" and would refuse to take orders from Mr Fazlullah.
"Now the TTP is ours, not theirs," Mr Ehsan said in a phone interview. Mr Fazlullah's Taliban faction has come under heavy assault by the Pakistani military in the North Waziristan tribal district. The army said that since the start of the offensive in June, it had killed over 500 militants, although the figures could not be independently confirmed. On Aug. 15, a senior Pakistani general said that the operation was in its "final stages" and that most of the area had been cleared of militants.
Pakistani soldiers patrol during a military operation against Taliban militants in the main town of Miranshah in North Waziristan. (AFP Photo)
The internal threat to the Taliban comes from ideological arguments and power struggles.
Mr Khorasani has long been seen as one of the movement's most ideological commanders, and his separation from the main Taliban branch prompted speculation among experts over an alliance with ISIS, which has captured a vast section of territory across Syria and Iraq and has declared itself the new Islamic caliphate.
Muhammad Amir Rana, director of the Pak Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad, said that Mr Khorasani and Mr Fazlullah had differed in their ambitions.
"Khorasani felt that Fazlullah had a narrow vision," Mr Rana said. "Khorasani wants an Islamic movement to rise from this region and believes that Fazlullah is only interested in the tribal belt."
But Mr Khorasani's ambitions may be constrained by his ties to al-Qaida, which is a sworn enemy of the Islamic State. Mr Khorasani identified his deputy, Maulana Qasim Khorasani, as the nominal leader of Jamaat-e-Ahrar. That may be intended to keep him slightly aloof from the new group, possibly in deference to Qaeda sensitivities. Khorasani is a sort of nom de guerre, referring to the ancient territory of Khorasan. The spokesman, Mr Ehsan, said in the phone interview that while the new group admired the Islamic State, it did not intend to formally pledge allegiance to it.
The Pakistani Taliban has always been a loose and often conflicted coalition of smaller cells. But it faced a huge public setback in May when a major segment of the Mehsud tribe broke away amid factional fighting in the mountains of Waziristan.
But in recent weeks, Mr Fazlullah has worked to reunite with the Mehsud factions, and some Taliban representatives began signaling this week that he seemed to be making progress.
Further splits in the Taliban may be bad news for stability inside Pakistan, said Mr Rana, the analyst. "The militant landscape remains broadly the same, and this new group could be even more brutal," he said. "Security-wise, it may not be good news."
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